Chapter 269 Finally Found
_Rowena’s POV_
We moved after I rested for a while, for some reason, Kyra found it hard to reopen the mind link, and I didn’t have much time to wait around.
The sooner I got out of these bushes, the better.
Just then, I heard sounds, I paused and positioned myself for a fight if one eventually came up.
I heard footsteps, careful ones moving through the brush thirty yards out. My whole body went rigid, and Instead pressed myself flat against the trunk of the nearest tree, my heart slamming against my ribs.
"Kyra," I whispered. "Someone’s coming."
"I feel them too," she said. "Stay still."
I reached down and found a broken branch near my feet, gripping it like it might actually do something against whoever Kyle had sent this time. My hands were shaking, but Kyra’s strength sat steady underneath mine, ready if I needed her.
"There’s more than one," I said.
"Three," Kyra said. "Moving fast, they’re trying to hide their approach, which is strange for people hunting someone."
That struck me as odd too.
Kyle’s men had been quiet before, they had been careful. Whoever this was wasn’t bothering to hide at all.
I tightened my grip on the branch and got ready to swing.
Then the wind shifted, carrying a scent toward me that stopped my whole body cold.
Pierre.
I knew that scent anywhere. A frown made its way to my face, Pierre was here?
My legs nearly buckled with relief, and I dropped the branch without even deciding to.
"Pierre," I said out loud, my voice cracking small.
Someone broke through the trees ahead of me, moving fast, and then he was there, right in front of me, his eyes wide and frantic like he’d been running for miles.
"Rowena." My name came out of him like a breath he’d been holding too long. "Goddess, Rowena, it’s really you."
I didn’t have words for a second, I just stood there, staring at him, and then he crossed the last few feet between us and pulled me into a hug so tight it nearly knocked the air out of me.
"We’ve been searching for hours," he said against my hair. "We found blood at the fun house, we didn’t know if—" He stopped himself, pulling back to look at me properly, and I watched his expression change.
His eyes moved over me slowly, taking in what I probably looked like. My clothes torn, my feet bare and cut up from running through the forest without shoes. Dried blood on my arm where Kyle’s blade had caught me, even though the wound itself had already healed. And my eyes. I still didn’t know exactly what they looked like now, but from the way Pierre stared into them, I knew they weren’t the same as before.
"What did he do to you?” Pierre asked, his voice going low and dangerous in a way I’d never heard from him before.
"He poisoned me," I said. "Tried to kill me. Kyra came back, Pierre. She saved me."
Pierre’s eyes widened even further at that, but he didn’t ask more. He just looked at me like he was cataloguing every mark on my body, every sign of what I’d survived, and I watched something harden behind his eyes, something that looked a lot like rage held very carefully in check.
"He’s going to pay for this," Pierre said. "Every single thing he did to you, he’s going to pay for."
"I know," I said. "I already made sure he knows it too."
Two others stepped into the clearing behind him, part of the search team, but they hung back a respectful distance while Pierre stayed close to me.
"We need to get you back," Pierre said. "Alaric’s out here too, he’s not far. He’s been out of his mind, Rowena. I’ve never seen him like this."
I felt my whole body flinch at that, and I stepped back before I could stop myself. "I can’t go back yet."
Pierre frowned. "What do you mean, you can’t go back? You need a doctor. You need Alaric. You need to be somewhere safe."
"Kyle’s not done," I said. "He is still out there. I didn’t kill him, Pierre, I couldn’t, not without witnesses, not without proof, and now he’s out there somewhere knowing what I’m carrying." My hand went to my stomach without thinking. "If I go back to the pack house, if he finds out where I am, he’ll come for me again. He’ll come for the baby."
"Rowena—"
"You don’t understand," I said, calmly. "He told me himself, my baby is a weapon to people like him. If he finds me again before Alaric’s people catch him, I don’t know what he’ll do. I can’t risk that. I can’t."
Pierre’s expression softened, but there was something firm underneath it too, something steady that reminded me why I’d trusted him for long. He put both hands on my shoulders, grounding me.
"Listen to me," he said. "Kyle is not untouchable anymore. Not after tonight. We’ve found financial records, hidden properties, evidence buried deep enough that he thought no one would ever find it. Alaric has people combing through everything connected to him right now. He is not going to walk around free for much longer, I promise you that. Your child’s father needs to know about his unborn child.”
"You don’t know that for certain. And what if Alaric isn’t happy?”
"I know Alaric," Pierre said. "And I know that man is not going to rest until Kyle is either dead or locked away somewhere he can never touch you again. You have my word, and you have his, even if he’s not standing here to give it to you himself. Also, he’ll definitely accept the child.”
I wanted to believe him. Goddess, I wanted to believe him so badly that it physically hurt.
"Kyra," I said. "What do you think?"
"I think Pierre’s telling the truth," Kyra said. "And I think you’re exhausted, and hurt, and carrying a child who needs proper care, not another night running through a forest. Plus, I don’t think Alaric would be pissed to find out about his baby.”
I closed my eyes and let out a long breath, feeling some of the fight drain out of me, replaced by something closer to exhaustion than fear.
"Okay," I said, opening my eyes again to meet Pierre’s. "Take me to him."